Everyone makes mistakes, and Naiba has also taken many detours and encountered many pitfalls over the years of building websites. This article summarizes 7 mistakes to avoid when building your own website. If you don't have a website yet, you can first look at
Steps to Build Your Own Website, or follow
WordPress installation tutorialto build your own website. Now, let's take a look at the 7 mistakes beginners are prone to encounter when building their own website.
1. SEO Mistake: Not Providing a Sitemap 
Sitemaps are one of the most important tools to help search engines understand your website's structure, but many beginners may not know that sitemaps can improve
website SEO optimizationeffectiveness. If you still don't know what a sitemap is or how to add one, please refer to:
Several Methods for WordPress to Generate Sitemaps_Recommended Sitemap Plugins 2. Keeping unnecessary plugins 
Many people disable unnecessary plugins but keep them on the server. In fact, this is not safe. Just because you deactivate a plugin doesn't mean it poses no risk by remaining on your server; some plugins may contain vulnerabilities that hackers can exploit. Additionally, too many plugins increase resource usage on the web server. WordPress needs to determine which plugins are enabled or disabled and check for plugin version updates, which indirectly affects the loading speed of your website's backend. Therefore, the correct approach is to delete plugins you don't need and reinstall them when necessary.
3. Forgetting manual backupsAlthough Naiba has repeatedly reminded everyone in articles that websites need regular backups and has shared
Prevent Data Loss: 10 Excellent WordPress Backup Plugins Recommended, recently Naiba discovered that the database backed up using a plugin had garbled characters, which turned out to be due to a bug in the backup plugin. So, manually backing up website data periodically is also very necessary; you can't rely too much on automation.
4. Not checking the functionality of contact formsContact form functionality is almost
Foreign Trade Independent Websitesan essential feature, but many website owners, after setting up WordPress and configuring the contact form, do not test whether it works. Some servers' email sending functions may be faulty. If you don't check yourself, you might lose customers unnecessarily. It is recommended to use
contact form local storage pluginto record contact form data, providing double insurance.
5. Using outdated versions of WordPress 
Because some foreign trade users purchase shared hosting with low PHP versions that cannot be upgraded to newer versions of WordPress, they simply choose not to update. WordPress version updates typically include not only new features but also fixes for vulnerabilities in older versions. Not fixing vulnerabilities greatly compromises website security. This is also why you often see corporate websites being hacked. Of course, if you are using a domestic server, automatic WordPress updates may fail, so you need to choose
manual WordPress version update.
6. Not updating WordPress themes and plugins promptlySimilar to WordPress versions, if there are updates for WP themes and plugins, you should also choose to update them. WordPress announces vulnerabilities in some plugins every month. If you happen to be using one and haven't updated it, consider the risks.
7. Directly modifying themes and pluginsSome newcomers follow online tutorials to modify theme and plugin code without backing up beforehand, leading to website errors or blank screens after incorrect modifications. Therefore, it's essential to develop the habit of backing up before modifying themes and plugins. If you still want to do SEO optimization and promotion, please continue reading:
Ultimate WordPress SEO Optimization Tutorial
Sitemaps are one of the most important tools to help search engines understand your website's structure, but many beginners may not know that sitemaps can improvewebsite SEO optimizationeffectiveness. If you still don't know what a sitemap is or how to add one, please refer to:Several Methods for WordPress to Generate Sitemaps_Recommended Sitemap Plugins 2. Keeping unnecessary plugins 
Many people disable unnecessary plugins but keep them on the server. In fact, this is not safe. Just because you deactivate a plugin doesn't mean it poses no risk by remaining on your server; some plugins may contain vulnerabilities that hackers can exploit. Additionally, too many plugins increase resource usage on the web server. WordPress needs to determine which plugins are enabled or disabled and check for plugin version updates, which indirectly affects the loading speed of your website's backend. Therefore, the correct approach is to delete plugins you don't need and reinstall them when necessary.3. Forgetting manual backupsAlthough Naiba has repeatedly reminded everyone in articles that websites need regular backups and has sharedPrevent Data Loss: 10 Excellent WordPress Backup Plugins Recommended, recently Naiba discovered that the database backed up using a plugin had garbled characters, which turned out to be due to a bug in the backup plugin. So, manually backing up website data periodically is also very necessary; you can't rely too much on automation.4. Not checking the functionality of contact formsContact form functionality is almostForeign Trade Independent Websitesan essential feature, but many website owners, after setting up WordPress and configuring the contact form, do not test whether it works. Some servers' email sending functions may be faulty. If you don't check yourself, you might lose customers unnecessarily. It is recommended to usecontact form local storage pluginto record contact form data, providing double insurance.5. Using outdated versions of WordPress 
Because some foreign trade users purchase shared hosting with low PHP versions that cannot be upgraded to newer versions of WordPress, they simply choose not to update. WordPress version updates typically include not only new features but also fixes for vulnerabilities in older versions. Not fixing vulnerabilities greatly compromises website security. This is also why you often see corporate websites being hacked. Of course, if you are using a domestic server, automatic WordPress updates may fail, so you need to choosemanual WordPress version update.6. Not updating WordPress themes and plugins promptlySimilar to WordPress versions, if there are updates for WP themes and plugins, you should also choose to update them. WordPress announces vulnerabilities in some plugins every month. If you happen to be using one and haven't updated it, consider the risks.7. Directly modifying themes and pluginsSome newcomers follow online tutorials to modify theme and plugin code without backing up beforehand, leading to website errors or blank screens after incorrect modifications. Therefore, it's essential to develop the habit of backing up before modifying themes and plugins. If you still want to do SEO optimization and promotion, please continue reading:Ultimate WordPress SEO Optimization Tutorial
Comments are closed
The comment function for this article is closed. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us through other channels.